Janet Dorenkott

AVP, Mindtree

Janet Dorenkott is AVP of Mindtree and founded Relational Solutions in 1996. Relational Solutions was acquired by Mindtree in 2015. Their Cleveland based office is now Mindtree’s Worldwide, Center of Excellence for Integration and Analytics.
Janet’s company built over 200 business intelligence solutions. Their focus is on CPG, with their POSmart & TradeSmart solutions which they developed to automate data integration and analytics and maximize ROI. They also focus on the Banking/Insurance, Hospitality & Media industries for data warehousing and business intelligence.
Janet is a regular co-author in Shopper Technology Institute’s annual book. She has developed and conducted many business intelligence training programs for companies and organizations. She has also had published success stories in DM Review, B-eye Network, Consumer Good’s Technology News and others.
They have been named one of the “Top Most Promising Big Data Companies” and “Top Most Promising SAP Partners” by CIO Review. They have been one of Consumer Goods Technologies Award winners for 10 years. They have been named one of the top Data Integration & Business Intelligence Consulting Companies by the Cleveland Award Program and they were one of the finalists in the NEOSA Top Technologies Award.
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Distrust in corporations? Sure, but I distrust polls and surveys even more. I think most people distrust surveys these days. Leading questions like this make it easy to distrust them. You need to look no further than our last election to see how leading questions skew results.
As far as giving employees a more vocal role, I think that can be done in a way that gives them the freedom to speak without harming the corporate message. After all, much of what molds the CEO's direction, is information that is communicated up from the field.

Drone delivery will definitely become more popular. As far as there being "no problem to solve," I disagree. It's not about solving a problem, it's about improving efficiency. Although many people want free delivery, others are very willing to pay a premium for something they need quickly, whether that is medicine they are running low on or a bathing suit for a vacation. Seems to me like low-altitude air traffic control is the problem waiting for a solution.

In my opinion it is inevitable, and in may cases, it's already happening. We are already doing it to our pets and some people to their kids and to volunteer employees. As costs continue to go down ($60 is cheap), employee productivity improves & employees start seeing how much easier it is to do their jobs, it will continue to gain acceptance.
Do I think it's creepy, absolutely. But there is an entire generation of kids following us that have grown up with a cell phone attached to their hands. They do not think it is creepy to share everything on social media, or puncture their faces with piercings. Why would they care about getting a chip implanted if it makes carrying boxes easier and getting into doors easier and opening drawers easier, etc? I think it will get a decent acceptance percentage.
That said, I think there will be enough push back for technology to continue to evolve. In 10 years, the chips will be cheap enough that hopefully, it will be more like a band-aid where, if an employee wants the ease, it can be applied as a sticker than can be removed at the end of the day. This will be non evasive and I see this as being the longer-term trend. But in the interim, I do believe, an inserted chip will be allowed by a certain percentage of employees.

First, Kroger has always been more decentralized than other retailers, but I don’t believe that was widely known by the consumer. Releasing a press announcement that focuses specifically on this will matter.

Many people are willing to pay more to support local and organic, despite their incomes. It’s why vegan, organic, gluten free and non-processed food lines are growing. The market is changing. We are learning every day, about the negative side effects of processed foods, antibiotics, etc. That said, to assume local is always more expense is wrong. Local is often less expensive.

Trends matter! Kroger is not to late to this trend as some have suggested. This is an entire generation changing their eating patterns to be more healthy. This generation is now having babies and producing a new set of parents that despite their income, will want to feed their children healthy options. Even a lot of baby boomers are focused on healthy these days.

Assortment will still require non-local vendors. I don’t know of any banana growers in Ohio. But the attempt to focus on local is positive.

Making it easier for local farmers to have access to Kroger by giving them a website, is a good idea.

Giving the local community and buyers access to the farmer’s stories will also be beneficial. People like buying from people they know and this will help them get to know their local farmer better.

I like it, but I'm not sure how profitable it will be. How about if you just fill the bus with whoppers and bring the food to them? That would leave people with more time on their lunch break and less money spent on gas to shuffle around a bunch of people.

Well, it's about time. I'm probably one of their 10 percent and I can tell you that their outdated coupons that you have to wait for in the mail are annoying. Then when they come in the mail, you have to sift through pages in a magazine to figure out where they hid the coupons this time. Then you get points when you use your credit card and more points if you pay $20 to have the honor of getting a percentage of sales back after the new year, for things you purchased between October and January, etc. It's annoying and hard to keep track of, so I'm glad they are fixing it. It will help with their loyal customers.
But they need to do more. Retail stores are withering on the vine. Macy's was one of the leaders who created a good online shopping experience before their competitors. I'm afraid they let the others play catch up now, so they do need to think about ways to reinvent themselves.
Although many of us shop mainly online, we do go to stores when shopping for a last minute party dress or gift. Moms also bring school kids into the stores because online is difficult when you're shopping for an entire season with kids who are growing. Macy's and other retail stores need to consider these new shopping patterns, focus on what they are selling and adjust their models accordingly.

I agree. Retailers definitely have to out-curate the e-tailers. They have to out-experience them as well. We had a similar discussion recently where people were actually suggesting "shaming" customers who decided to shop online for lower prices. That's not going to work. Out-curating, creating loyalty through offering better service and experiences and getting creative to differentiate yourself will keep shoppers coming in.

Absolutely! Mindtree implements chatbots all the time and see first hand proof of increased sales. Chatbots are definitely helping to increase sales. Anytime you can respond to questions quickly and keep the customer engaged, your chance of a sale will increase. In the very near future chatbots will respond verbally, giving an even more human-like experience. Keeping it fast, simple and accurate will definitely increase sales for those companies who implement it first and most accurately.

I'm not sure the business model for Birchbox is good for anyone long term. The concept of paying $10/month for samples, doesn't appeal to me at all. As a woman who uses beauty products, I can tell you that I am very loyal to products that I like. I will occasionally try something new, but that's rare. Many women experience reactions on their skin when trying new products. It's something that most of my friends avoid unless they have a persistent problem. I understand, they are trying to sell them the bigger versions of product, but the ongoing subscription makes no sense to me.

Dick's got "creative" with their "Score Card." One of our local candy stores got creative by doing factory tours and letting people make their own candy. Cold Stone ice cream got creative by letting customers create their own ice cream combination. Creativity is self explanatory. It will vary from shop to shop. My small consulting company got creative by developing our own BI tool when companies like Accenture entered our space. It's all about creativity. Businesses fail if they can't keep up. They succeed by offering something others don't offer. They don't succeed by begging customers to buy from them.

As a common Wayfair & Amazon shopper, I can say that the Wayfair experience for buying furniture is much better. The visualization tool is great and the selection is better. Wayfair caters to the furniture shopper with things like multiple filters that allow you to do things like select color, style, price range, etc.
When I bought a summer home a couple of years ago, I started using Wayfair. I've continued to shop Wayfair for my remodeling and my kids homes.
I liked the site and products so much that I decided to buy stock in it back in January. Seven months later, I'm up 77%. I'm obviously not the only one who likes Wayfair. That said, I also shop Amazon all the time. So back in 2013 I bought Amazon stock. That's up over 200% ... but I bought that in 2013.

Fees? Signs? Telling them they are rude? No, this wouldn't be right at all. Mom and Pops need to focus on changing themselves to meet today's shopping methods, not the other way around. Once upon a time, horses and mules tilled farmer’s soil. Today John Deere & Caterpillar do that. Once we saw newspapers on every door step. Today, most people get their news online. Times change. It costs some their business. Others find opportunity in it.
As with every company, they need to keep up with the times and with trends. Fewer people are buying soda these days. Are Coca-Cola and Pepsi going out of business? No. They are refocusing on healthier drinks. Did Kellogg’s go out of business because people aren’t eating their sugary cereals as much anymore? No, they bought healthier brands like Kashi.
Mom & Pops can’t fight the internet. Many big box stores are having the same problems. For years I’ve thought companies like Best Buy should reserve space to become a showroom for the products they carry and change rent to the manufacturer.
Yes, some of these mom & pops will go out of business. The ones who offer unique items, services and an online presence, will survive. Mom and pops who sell commodities that can be purchased elsewhere (online or at another store), will suffer. Actually, I think most of them went out of business as stores like Walmart entered their geographies over the course of the past 40 years.
Get creative Mom & Pops, not insulting.

Stop growing? No company should ever stop growing. If she would have said some companies should stop expanding their retail footprint, then I would agree. But all companies stop growing? That’s ridiculous. That said, every retailer is different. If Aldi’s sees value in adding brick and mortar stores, then they should do it. If Dollar General sees financial growth opportunities, then they should do it too.
Every retailer needs to get better at their online presence and some of them are doing it better than others. If they are, then their online sales should be replacing their in-store sales and those retailers should reduce their brick and mortar footprint. It should increase profits for them.
It seems to me like there is a correlation of brick and mortar stores that are growing, to incomes. Both Aldi’s and Dollar General appeal to lower income shoppers. Perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture that low income shoppers don’t buy online as much as others. Perhaps it’s the shipping fees or maybe lower income shoppers can’t afford high speed networks or fast computers that make online shopping easy. Bottom line is every company should be trying to grow and they should be trying to grow their profits. It’s survival of the fittest out there and the competition is smart and new.

I do believe this is happening and I asked this question of my brother, who lives in Miami, and my sister-in-law, who is Venezuelan and has been a US citizen for about 8 years now. Their response was that illegals are staying home, so it is logical that those cities with high percentages of illegal immigrants would be experiencing a slow-down. They also note that they are having friends do their shopping for them and that they are buying online. But they aren’t necessarily eating less.
With the stock market at an all time high, e-tail sales growing rapidly and unemployment at its lowest rate in 16 years, people are shopping and spending is up.
As for Target, they should look to themselves to understand what they are doing wrong. Target has done some very unpopular things recently that cost them significantly. Specifically the transgender bathroom policy, cost Target significant revenue loses and resulted in a boycott that cost Target an estimated 6% in sales.
In addition, with the general migration from brick and mortar stores to online sales, Target needs to play catch-up. The migration has been going on for years and many traditional retailers are not being very forward thinking. It reminds me of what the newspaper industry has been going through for the past 15 years. Retail outlets will continue to be less and less popular and online sales become more and more convenient. Unless retailers come up with new and differentiating ideas, they will be left to wither on the vine, while innovative companies like Stitch Fix, Le Tote and Giant Eagle provide unique shopping experiences online.

Stitch Fix and Le Tote have been doing this for some time. I know several women who use these types of sites. Leaving a restaurant the other night I complimented two women who had very nice outfits on. One got hers from Stitch Fix and the other from Le Tote. It sounded like Le Tote was more user-friendly because you didn't have to buy a minimum number of peices to get a discount and you could keep it for up to three months before returning. I was actually planning to sign up for one of them this weekend. Since I'm already an Amazon Prime member, I'll try this out first. This is definitely disruptive and retailers will definitely feel the pain if they don't get on board in some manner.